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Keb. IB, I860 .J The Leader and Saturday...
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much so, that whilst tliey maintain that...
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* PRE-ADAMITE MAN.* . WE can never too h...
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told by dorlnturo caul tidence. LohUuh t...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Keb. Ib, I860 .J The Leader And Saturday...
Keb . , I 860 . J The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 161
Much So, That Whilst Tliey Maintain That...
much so , that whilst tliey maintain that the » verage _ standard of XalityV lower , in fact ' in this country than ! ^^ aiice . Jhey charge us with a ridiculous fastidiousness with respect ^ what ^ ve read bv our firesides or , see on the stage ; in other-words , they accuse " us of a national prudery , as childish as it is typocrrtieaj and insincere . Without entering into any discussion as to ^^^ literature of any country is an unmistakeable and mfalible . efl g ot the contemporaneous tone of feeling :, or whether there . is tie bame systematic mimorality , tlie -me domestic ^ andsocial irregukntym supposing for the sake of arguing
KSES S Paris ?^ d even that breaches of the moral law of society are as frequent and as flagrant in one capital as the other , which , m spite of the reveiat ons of Sir Cresswell Crosswell ' s court , we are far- fl ™ V ™ % ?? , . J not more conducive to the public well-being : to ve . l the evn w Ui a decent reticence , and , even at the risk of being sneered at as prudish and weak-minded , to forbid its reproduction and Representation by the press or on the stage ? The less we have of a bacL thing the bettL ' arid if vice ia inevitable in itself , it is surely no false delicacy to say as little about ifc , and to publish it abroad as little as possible . Pope appreciated the principle which , lies at the bottom of our so-called prudery , and a broad truth . is conveyed in his well-known
" Vice isi ' monster of so frightful mien , As to be hated , needs but to be seen ; But seen too oft , familiar with her face , V We iirst . endure , then pity , then embrace . " He that toucheth pitch shall be defiled therewith ; " and-the author , performers , and spectators of an immoral drama are ail exposed to the debasement of mind which is as surely engendered by an unwholesome moral , atmosphere , as are physical maladies by inhaliii" a poisonous physical atmosphere . It is no more hardy to bend for an hour over a patient in the putreseent stage oi typhus , than it is to spend an evening at a theatre in listening to . the profligate vagaries of-a veteran debauchee , or witnessing the degrading arts of courtesan . . /*
a mercenary .. . . „ . ,.,,, ,, ; , „ The Parisian public flock night after night to see the Pere Prodi <* u . e "' a play so noisome and foetid that it has been even prohibited at St . Petersburg , where , as a rule , the censor is not extraordinarily , stringent . Still the admirers of Dumas the younger —and their name is legion—maintain that it is lipt immoral j and this brings Us round to the question with which we started—When can a play be called-. - "immoral P Whenever grave , unmistakeable downright vice is depicted in such a way as to excite laughter , and even an unacknowledged admiration . . : L ^ olly , not vice , is the lit subject for laughter . . ¦ ' ¦ . ; The' play before us is an illustration . There are two heroes , father and son . The former , left a widower at the age of twenty
.--five with a sOn a year old , soon became the gayest man m gay Paris . H : \ vin" been himself educated in the midst of the most ri" -id Puritanism , he goes to the other extreme , arid initiates his soil in ° aU the profligacies of the French capital ; and at the time when the action of the play begins , the worthy gentleman ' s reckless extravagance has nearly demolished an enormous patrimony . Heroine there is none ; but the person who would , be if theve were one is a scheming prostitute , who intends to retire from business as soon as sue has saved a certain amount of money . Another lady is introduced , who plays the necessary but comparatively tame part of the virtuous and intelligent wife . Of course there is the usual complement of pimps and adulteresses . The plot is " simple m its neatness . " At first , the father and son Jive happily enough together , with
each enjoying his own style of immorality . The son meets a beautiful and virtuous maiden , whom his father had previously courted ; he marries her , and at once subsides into the heavy husband . Then there is a rumour through Paris that the -father is endeavouring to seduce his dnut ? hter-in-hvw . The indignant fatherin-law , loarning this , consoles himself in the embraces of the demihoroine . The son , who 1 ms full power of the purse , cuts oil . the supplies , and demi-heroine , having saved the- predetermined amount , marries the pimp . The (' other , reduced to impticumosity , fi' -hts a duel with a lmsbund whoso wife the son had liaa am intrigue with in his " fast" clays '; wound * the weak-minded hiisLund , and on the strength of it becomes reconciled to Ins grateful son . And the piuco terminates with the pleasing intelligence that the eon is in-turn shortly about to become a father .
" The Prodigal Father" nightly furnishes instruction and amusement to hundreds of men and women . At what expense this amusement ia procured , what sort of instruction it gives , and how it contributes to the growth of national virtue , may bo easily conjectured , It is much asl fa , British paterfamilias were to take his wjfe amd daughters to promenade the Haymarkot at midnight for amusemont and instruction . If a man , or a body of men , vonturo to plunge into an atmosphere of vice , it should bo as a phyuioian enters the
ward sot apurb for some infectious disorder—every available precaution having boon employed , and the motive being not _ tin idle curiosity , but puro philnnthvopy . A man who with this ¦ spirit and in this way makes vice thq object of his contemplation , is a benofaetor ' to humanity , anil denorvo . s hearty cnwuuragoment , though oven then wo must remember that danger can novoi' bo entirely romovod , But no condemnation is sufueiontly strong lor those who dopiot unprincipled dobauchory in bright and attractive colours , and who , make tho oomio drama a medium tor promotingmoral degradation , inutond" of the harmless amusement and diversion
pf rational beingH . Apart from the moml quostion , nncl viewing it merely in a literary lig l * t , tho work is wiugwlttrly uninoritorious . To undur « tand tins it is not enough to compare it with othera from tho sumo pon , or ovon
with , the writings of contemporary authors , such as " Le Due Job ' , of M . Laya , or " La Penelope Norniande ¦ ¦ " of Alphonse Karr . Let us take a play of Moliere ' s , and see how the genius of French comedy has changed , and how woefully its glory has departed . Head "Tartufe , " and tfchen , read " Le Pere Prodigue / ' -What a contrast do we observe between the accurate and complete delineation Of character in . the one , and the crude , superficial conceptions of the other ; between the repose of the master and the slovenly haste of the self-sufficient tyro between the wit of Moliere and the obscene double-entendres of Dumas ; between true genius on the one hand , and the prurient imaginings of fifth-rate talent on the other . With the one , the object of his comedy was to amuse mankind at the same time that he corrected them ; the other
neither corrects nor amuses , and is like a physician who employs his art not to heal his patients , l > ut to poison them . The unnatural pedantry of the dramatic unities has been abolished- but that wa ; s not more objectiohable than is tlie nnartistic style which marks the plays not only of Dumas the younger , but of most modern playwrights . The neglect of unity did not involve inattention to symmetry , yet as a matter of fact how few plays of the present French school can be said to indicate that elaboration and finished study which ought to distinguish a national drama . _ The merest superficialities of character are seized , and an enumeration of these supplies the place of a full and deep grasp of the subject , such as we meet with in the comedians who lived in days when the public required a picture , and would not , as is now . the case , have been l daub for landshe has
satisfied with a meaningess . As Eng , , no present drama . In France , the spectator has the satisfaction-Qt knowing that -such ingenuity or talent as inay be detected in the play is of home-growth ; \ Vhilst the English playgoer cannot forget that he has before him only iin adaptation , in some cases a mere translation of some French piece , which was probably much too weak in the first instance to bear any dilution or filtration without losing what little flavour it ever had , and which therefore reaches us in a state of hopeless insipidity . However , we have not now . to speak of the English stage , but we may say that its , present feebleness is to be preferred to the " strongmmdedness ot our Gallican neighbours , and we shall be quite ; -willing to bear the . charge of prudery and straitlaced hypocrisy if it saves us from such garbage as the " Prodigal Father . " ^
* Pre-Adamite Man.* . We Can Never Too H...
* PRE-ADAMITE MAN . * . WE can never too highly value the privilege of every Brxton to conceive , adopt , or publish any theory he pleases , Be Jus theory what it may , it will never endanger his head , even though it may injure his heart . The list of the Martyrs of Seience is closed . Her sons may suffer now from obscurity , poverty , and neglect ; but no man will dare to deprive them of their liberty of theorizing and publishing . Let them but pay their printer s and paper maker ' s bills , and they may laugh at the law just . as freely as men
may laugh at their theories . ' . It was not always so , as this very theory before us may be ^ instanced to show . Our anonymous author is by no means the first propounder of it . According to him there were men before : Adam ; so also were there pre-Adamites before this one . Ihe only one known to us who worked out hi 8 idea into a book was Isaac La Peyrere , who published it in Hblland in 1655 . An English version of it now lies before us , and was published in London , the first part in tho same year , and the second pnrt in 1656 . Evident y it was thought-no small risk to publish , it , for it bears no printers name , and no kind of indication of author or bookseller . The iwUappy author , however , was speedily discovered , and had no peace from that hour for a whole year . At Paris hia book was publicly comhimself committed to
mitted to tho flames ; at Brussels he was prison . A prince had to intercede for his liberation , upon Nvhich Peyjroro repaired to Pome ( in 1656 ) , where he gave in to the lope a solemn renunciation of his pre-Adamitism , and , at tho same tune , of his Calvinism ; the hitter , however , being a very different kind ot creed from that which Oalvinists commonly hold , and nearly resembling tho Deism of our age . Persecuted , nevertheless , as he was , lie livel to the great age of eighty-two ; but at the last , upon beinjj nuoHtionod about his pro-Adamitism , he declined to retract ins opinions , declaring with his dying breath , " AVhosoever denies these things blasphemes . " So departed the old man , whose book contains many curious remarks , and whoso life was still immreurious than his book . A pout of Jim own times wrote an epitaph to * nun ,
which may be thus freely rendered : — " Pcyrorp lies hero , ft good Israelite , Hugonot , OivtlvoUc , Pro-Adftinite . To four reHgioiiH his faith ho plighted Yofc all so long and sadly slighted , Thuj ! when he paw Mb oip ; htioth aim Ho hu 4 not yot iimdo ohoioo of ouo ! Thq . author , whoso book ia bufoi-o us , is in wo ^ n ?? or of imnriflonmont , and need not fear that hi » work wi 1 bq burnt ; nor i piobablo that Pius the Ninth will call upon him to reonnih o pi ons Men may not take up with hie . theory , but they certain \ y ™\*™ take off Iiia head , lia may publish nnotjier ^ yohirno o »» Vro-h . vU « j if . so minded ; and no doubt many of the poat-Evitofl wouldl »« od it with pleasure ! especially if ndoraod with portrnituros ot tho auppofloU anteoedeutrt of tho luirost pnrb of ouv oyontIon . Tho amount of prosumod jirooi ol his theory , a 3 busoa __ "j wu
Told By Dorlnturo Caul Tidence. Lohuuh T...
told by dorlnturo caul tidence . LohUuh t Suundors , Otlcy , ana w .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 18, 1860, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_18021860/page/13/
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